


Always on the hunt for a little more time

by SerotoninUp



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Angst, Demonic Possession, Emotional Hurt, Hell, Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer TV) Needs A Hug, Pining, Post-Lucifer (TV) Season/Series 04, Time Shenanigans, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:54:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23920399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerotoninUp/pseuds/SerotoninUp
Summary: Not long after returning to his throne, Lucifer follows a rogue demon to Earth. He finds himself at the scene of a recent murder, and encounters a familiar face.
Comments: 13
Kudos: 78





	Always on the hunt for a little more time

Having immediately felt the demonic spirit tear through the barrier between Hell and Earth, Lucifer wasted no time giving chase.

He spread his wings and shifted easily between worlds, the suffocating atmosphere of the infernal dimension giving way to the effervescent air of the Earthly realm. Sand crunched beneath his feet, stretching out around him in all directions. Instinctively, he tilted his head back, looking up toward the heavens.

For the first time in centuries, he saw his stars, gleaming brightly at him from the velvety night sky, a shimmering salutation that made his chest tighten and his pulse quicken.

He always forgot their true beauty. Hell dimmed his memories of pleasant things. That was its nature, after all. It leached all joy from the souls trapped within it, and it returned only unending suffering. No one, not even the King of Hell himself, was entirely immune to its effects.

Thus, every time he visited Earth, that first sight of his stars blanketing the sky in quiet magnificence always stole his breath away.

But his euphoria at the sight of his far-flung creations was short-lived. His skin tingled as his senses caught the trail of the escaped demon, gooseflesh crawling across his arms and fire simmering in his blood. A red haze washed over his vision as he fixated on the aberration in the fabric of this world, the flaw in reality that revealed the rogue demon's presence.

He took to the sky, wings beating a steady rhythm as he followed the demon's trail. In the distance stood a cluster of bright lights and tall buildings - a city.

With a moment's thought and a quick sweep of his wings, Lucifer found himself standing at the dead end of a residential street. Under normal circumstances, it may have been a quiet, pleasant place to live, but currently, the windows of the cozy houses lining the block flashed red and blue, reflecting the lights of several police cars parked in front of one house in particular.

Two uniformed officers took a statement from a trembling woman wearing fuzzy slippers and a pink bathrobe. Behind the trio, the front door of the house stood open, and the infernal presence called to him from the darkness beyond the doorway.

Lucifer shrugged his wings into hiding and wrapped himself in shadows, avoiding detection by the humans as he slipped into the house. The demon's spirit tugged at him, a relentless pull that drew him towards the rear of the home and into a small, sparsely-decorated room which held only a well-worn sofa, a flatscreen television, and a fluffy blue rug.

On the rug lay a man, sprawled out on his back in a sticky pool of blood, sporting several stab wounds in his chest and gut. Within the man's corpse, the demon's energy writhed and pulsed, emitting sick-making waves of malicious intent as it settled into its new home.

Beside the body crouched a woman, leaning over the corpse to examine its wounds. A curtain of golden hair hid her face from view, but Lucifer didn't need to see her face. The moment he set eyes upon her, he recognized her. He would know her anywhere, no matter the days and years and centuries between the last moment he saw her and this moment, right now.

As she turned her head to look up at him, his pulse pounded in his ears, and he heard nothing but the tumultuous thunder of his own heart, saw nothing but _her_.

Blue eyes brighter than all the collective stars in the heavens snared him with sharp familiarity, and she blinked at him once, twice, eyelashes fluttering in astonishment. The fervent yearning and bittersweet heartache that years in Hell had sucked away from him struck him full-force, cracking open his soul as lightning splits a tree, burning away the darkness and decay of Hell's influence and leaving only a resonant lightness in its wake.

Lucifer fell to his knees, staring at her from the other side of the dead man's body, and his mouth shaped her name in voiceless exaltation.

 _Chloe_.

"Lucifer," she breathed. His name in her mouth sounded more divine than any prayer.

And then the corpse opened its eyes, and the demon within snarled, striking upward with yellowed teeth and ragged fingernails to attack the nearest threat. Its gaze fixed with single-minded animosity on the soft, vulnerable skin of Chloe's exposed throat. The remnants of his shock at Chloe's unexpected presence rendered Lucifer's reflexes far too slow. He flung out a hand, loosing an anguished cry, knowing he was too late, _too late_.

A heavy thump sounded behind him, the floor beneath him shaking from the impact. And then, like someone had pressed the Pause button on the universe, everything simply stopped. A surge of divine power rushed over him, over the possessed corpse, over Chloe. The world stood still, frozen in the moment.

Flame erupted in Lucifer's vision, and he thrust his hand against the corpse's chest, shoving it back to the floor, pinning it down with practiced ease. The demon within struggled against the constraints of both the Devil and the sudden stoppage of time. It hissed at him, fear emanating from it in great, frantic waves.

 _Good,_ Lucifer thought. _Be afraid_.

From beneath his palm, Hellfire spread, rippling beneath the corpse's sallow skin, and the demon shrieked and gibbered as the inferno consumed its essence, scouring away its very existence.

When the corpse lay empty, once again void of a demonic or human presence, Lucifer stood and turned to greet the angel standing behind him.

"Excellent timing, brother."

Amenadiel shook his head, his smile genuine and fond. "It's good to see you, Luci. I felt your arrival and came looking for you." He nodded at the corpse on the floor. "I take it some of your demons are still testing your boundaries?"

Lucifer gestured impatiently, his frustration plain on his face. "Not the smart ones, no. But occasionally some low-level idiot who thinks he's too insignificant to warrant the Devil's attention will give it a try."

He turned again to gaze down at the Detective. His lungs constricted, a tight band of dread wrapping around his chest at the realization of how quickly and easily she could have been ripped away from this world. Her wide-eyed expression, lips slightly parted, hand half-raised in defense, tugged at his heart. He'd left Earth precisely to keep her - to keep everyone - safe from his demons, yet here she was, under threat from the denizens of Hell once more.

The crimson haze descended upon his vision again. "Clearly, the lesson requires repeating," he growled, and his voice reverberated with strange, dark echoes through the small room.

A heavy silence settled upon the still air, and Lucifer's vision cleared. He stepped away from the tableau on the floor, but his eyes remained fixed on the Detective.

"I should go," he murmured. The words lay like a stone upon his heart.

Amenadiel placed a restraining hand on Lucifer's shoulder. "Did she see you, before I stopped time?"

"She said my name." Lucifer sighed, remembering the bright clarity of her voice, the overwhelming surprise and hope contained in that single word.

Amenadiel dropped his hand and considered his younger brother for a moment, the longing suffusing his expression, the sudden slump of his shoulders. "I can release my hold on time, if you wish to say goodbye," he offered.

Lucifer clenched his jaw, his pulse quickening as he looked down at the Detective. He wanted to hear his name fall from her lips again, to hold her safe in the shelter of his arms, to tangle his hands in the golden spill of her hair and kiss her into rapturous oblivion.

But what would come after that? Hell needed its king. He would leave her again, as he had left her on the penthouse balcony, her cheeks stained with the sorrow he'd planted in the fractures of her broken heart.

"No." The word cracked as it left his mouth, infused with a bleak finality. He took a deep breath, composing himself. "That would be cruel."

He made an abrupt turn, tearing his eyes away from the Detective, and extended a hand in farewell to his brother. Amenadiel clasped it firmly, his expression solemn. "Thank you, Lucifer," he said, "for keeping us safe."

Lucifer nodded, unable to speak around the sudden lump in his throat, his heart an aching hollow in his chest.

As he shrugged his shoulders, his wings bursting into existence, he allowed himself one final glance at the Detective, imprinting this image of her in his memories. If ever his resolve to remain in Hell wavered, he would look back at this frozen moment in time and remember the fear in her eyes, her hand raised in futile defense against one of his subjects. He would do anything - suffer through his eternal exile, destroy every rebellious demon in Hell - to ensure that she never again found herself at the mercy of one of Hell's own.

With a powerful sweep of his wings, reality shifted. The small, cramped room gave way to the smooth stone of his throne, high above the jagged peaks and dark valleys of Hell. The cries and pleas and weeping of damned souls and the vicious laughter of demons rose through the air, assaulting his ears, burrowing into his soul.

The maelstrom whirled, gray and furious, above his head, and ash fell silently from the sky, streaking his cheeks like tears.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the lyrics to "LA Devotee" by Panic! at the Disco.  
> Thanks for reading! <3


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